Plymouth Notch in Windsor County, Vermont — The American Northeast (New England)

Calvin Coolidge Homestead

By Don Morfe, September 24, 1998

1. Calvin Coolidge Homestead Marker

Inscription. Calvin Coolidge Homestead has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark.
Under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1933 this site possesses exceptional value in commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States.
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service 1966.

This 1956 portrait of Calvin Coolidge by Joseph E. Burgess (after Ercole Cartotto) hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“Americans expect their presidents to be active, which explains why Calvin Coolidge has been labeled by historians as the ‘quiet president’ and an ‘American enigma.’ Coolidge was propelled to national prominence, and the vice presidency, by his decision, while governor of Massachusetts, to fire striking officers in Boston's police strike of 1919, proclaiming, ’there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.’ Assuming the presidency after Warren Harding's death in 1923, Coolidge determined not to do anything to upset American prosperity. Upon election to the presidency, Coolidge, in his 1925 inaugural address the first on radio expressed his belief that ‘the people of America [should] … work less for the government and more for themselves.… That is the chief meaning of freedom.’ When Coolidge left office, political commentator Walter Lippmann wrote, ‘Surely no one will write of those years … that an aggressive president altered the destiny of the Republic. Yet … no one will write … that the Republic wished its destiny to be altered.’” — National Portrait Gallery

Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. This page originally submitted on December 26, 2012, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. This page has been viewed 421 times since then and 16 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on December 26, 2012, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. 7. submitted on October 17, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.